Cheap Deal On Baby Wipes

I just had to share a great deal I just got on Huggies wipes.  I got 3 refill packs with 216 wipes in each pack (648 total wipes), which is equivalent to 9 of the tubs.  I ordered them off of Amazon.com, and if you are a mom and don't know, sign up for the Amazon Mom program to immediately get a % off of diapers and wipes.  Also, if you sign up for Subscribe and Save, you get another % off of all sorts of items.  The total % off if you sign up for both deals is 20% (or 30% if you were already signed up.  The discount just changed and went down to 20%).  So, the wipes were originally $21.47.  After the discount they went down to $14.03 (I was already signed up so I got 30% off).  Then I had two $10 gift cards to Amazon that I earned from Swagbucks.com (this place is awesome if you haven't heard of it!).  Oh, and I got free shipping.  Grand total after all of my discounts.....$4.03!!  I'm happy with that :)

The Fair!

Olivia officially attended the great state fair of Oklahoma on her 11 week birthday! We weren't quite sure about taking an 11 week old to the fair, but last Sunday we decided to go for it. We had a lot of fun, and when I say we I mean Michael and I, because Livi slept almost the entire time!  Although we didn't ride any rides or play any games, we got to eat all of the traditional fair food (which is why we really go anyways, right?!).  We both had corndogs and corn on the cob (yum), and Michael also had a turkey leg while I ventured out and tried a frozen, chocolate-covered banana.  All in all, it was a successful day at the fair.

Obviously thrilled to be at the fair :)



Really?



Uncle Wil and Allison



Proud Momma

Ok, so I'm sitting here watching my little angel sleep on the video monitor, and I just had to brag at how good my baby is.  First off, Livi is 10 weeks old today!!  I can hardly believe how fast it is going and how much she is growing!  She is so much fun now, smiling and attempting to 'talk' all the time.  She is also SLEEPING!!  That's right, I am almost back to getting the same amount of sleep as I did before she was around.  It's a-mazing :)  The day she turned 8 weeks old, she slept through the night 8 whole hours!  It was a shock, but a pleasant one.  She has continued to sleep better and better since then.  She's even slept 9 hours a few nights!!  I am just amazed at how well she is doing at such a young age.  Her napping is another thing that is going great.  At 11 days old, we started letting Livi self-soothe to put herself to sleep.  This doesn't mean we just let her cry for hours on end, but we did let her cry for a good 15-20 minutes before going in to calm her down and let her know we were still here.  Well, I am SO proud to say that we now put her to bed awake every time and we rarely have more than 10 minutes of crying.  And even then, it's not constant screaming, but a few 'waah's here and there while she settles down.  I just love this little girl so much!  Here are a few recent pics of our sleeping angel:



She loves her daddy :)

One Month!

I can't even believe it, but Olivia turned 1 month on August 10th!  It has been such a fun, exhausting past couple of weeks.  We're going to be keeping track of Olivia's growth by taking a picture of her in the same chair next to the same bear each month.  Hopefully this will be a fun way for us to watch our little girl grow! 
This month:
-Sleeping on average 4-5 hours a night (and a few times 6 hours!)
-Random smiles.  These are the smiles that don't seem to happen because of anything inparticular, but we still love seeing them!  But we can't wait until she is actually smiling AT us :)
-Growing like a weed!  Last time we weighed her she was 7 lbs 12 oz.  Gained 10 oz since birth.

1 month old!

Livi and Miss Evie

Hanging out with Brady.

Ready for church!



Sleeping angel :)



Olivia's First Week Home

Well, since bringing Olivia home there have been LOTS of firsts.  First bath.  First pediatricians appointment.  First photo shoot.  Each day it seems that there's a new first to add to the list.  It's exhausting but we are loving our new addition.  I don't think we've ever been so tired in our lives, but we wouldn't trade it for anything!  Here's a few pics from the first week here at the house:


1 week old!





















At the pediatrician with Daddy.






















A couple of her newborn pics.



LOVED her first bath.

She's Here!

Olivia Claire White arrived on July 10, 2011 at 3:06 p.m.  She weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 18 1/4 inches long.  We are SO happy she is finally here!  Mom and baby are happy and healthy, though there was a little drama in the process of getting her here.  Here's what happened.....
We were scheduled to be induced at 5:30 a.m. on July 10th.  We got up bright and early that morning and headed to the hospital.  Everything was going great.  We checked in to our room, I got all hooked up, and after that we were playing the waiting game.  I was already dialated to about a 3 when we got there.  Once everything started, I was dialating surprisingly fast (a couple of centimeters an hour!)  As it got close to 3:00, I had made it to a 10 and the doctor said it was time!  After getting everything ready, it was time to start pushing.  I pushed a total of 6 times when Olivia's heart rate dropped from 130 beats per minute to 45.  Immediately the decision was made to do an emergency c-section and get her out.  Everything happened SO fast after that.  From the moment my doctor decided to do a c-section, wheeled my bed to the operating room, and got Olivia out was less than 4 minutes!  Everyone asks if I was scared, but I honestly didn't have time to be!  And when something like that happens, the doctors don't exactly have time to explain what is going on.  Which made the whole thing extra scary for Michael, but he was so good about encouraging me and telling me everything was fine.  And it was!  We still don't know exactly why her heart rate dropped (they said she could have been squeezing the umbilical cord) but Miss Olivia is a happy, healthy baby.  We stayed in the hospital an extra day because of my c-section, and got to bring her home on July 13th.  We love this little girl more than anything and are so blessed with our new little family.  Here are some pics from our first days with her:




5:15 a.m. Going to the hospital!





Our families seeing Olivia for the first time.





Going home!



Introducing.....White Kottage Bows

I have been extra busy lately getting ready for Miss Olivia.  One huge change (in addition to having a baby around) is that I will official be a stay-at-home mom this fall instead of a 3rd grade teacher.  I'm really, really excited to stay at home with my baby girl, but also a tad bit worried that I might get...I dare say...bored.  Yes, I know I'll be taking care of a newborn, but I just worry that I'll be itching for something to do.  SO, I decided to try my hand at making some cute bows.  I figure, if nothing else comes out of this, atleast my little girl will have a bow to go with absolutely every outfit she owns.  I've always dreamed of having some kind of business called the Kottage.  I don't know where the name came from, I just know I've always thought it would make a great business name.  With this new bow-making thing I've started, I tweeked the name just a bit to White Kottage (get it? last name white?), and then tweeked it some more to White Kottage Bows.  So I now officially have an Etsy shop devoted to my bow making.  Take a look and tell your friends!!

http://www.whitekottage.etsy.com/

 

Remember, I JUST started this Etsy thing....like literally 30 minutes ago....so there aren't many bows yet, but there are many more to come, I promise!

Trash or Treasure?

We recently had big trash day here in our neighborhood. You always see "those people" who drive around and pick things out of other people's trash piles...well this time that was me. On top of the million and one things I'm doing to get ready for Olivia, I thought, a couple more projects....why not! And I think I got some pretty good stuff! First off, I absolutely cannot throw things away unless they are completely broken and unusable. So, when I see something that has nothing wrong with it (other than being ugly), I have the urge to pick it up and give some life back to it. I picked up two different projects this time

#1 Four black chairs that were in good condition, but had some very, very worn out seat cushions.
#2 Two retro lamp shades that are HUGE. But pretty cool.

Project #1

I happened to have some leftover fabric here at the house that worked great to recover the seat cushions. The ONLY thing I did to these chairs was use my fabric and recover them. Took about 30 minutes. Posted them on Craigslist, and $20 later, I'm satisfied with my big trash day find.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Project #2
There was just something about these lampshades that was calling my name. I think Michael thought I was nuts (maybe he still does). I decided to do the whole burlap thing and cover both of the lampshades. I then made one for our bedroom, and one for a floor lamp in Olivia's nursery. I love them both!
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Olivia's nursery

Our room

Can't wait to see what treasures I'll find next time!

Olivia Claire's Nursery

It's finished!! I am so excited about how Olivia's nursery has turned out. When we moved in this room was very green. It has come a long way since then! The ONLY thing missing is a crib skirt, but I couldn't wait to post a few sneak peek pictures :) Now all that we need is our sweet little baby girl!

One of my favorite things about this room is the giant picture window with the white molding:

Couponing

I just wanted to share my latest grocery trip with everyone. No, I am not a crazy coupon lady (yet), but with a baby on the way we are definitely counting our pennies and every bit that I can save helps. So, I did not do a whole lot of planning for this last trip, but I managed to feel good about what I came out with. Here's the loot:

$45 total

-10 in coupons

- 5 promotional deal from Kellogs

$30

Still had to spend some $, but hey, I would have bought the items anyways and this way I still have $15 in my pocket!

Let the Countdown Begin!

Well, we are officially 1 month and 8 days away from Olivia Claire's due date....ahhh!!! I can't believe there will be another member of our family here so soon. I still don't think we know what we're getting ourselves into, but I have a feeling we'll figure it out quick! The plan when we first got pregnant was to keep a Hidden Baby Blog until we revealed the news to everyone, and then blog weekly updates from then on about my pregnancy. Needless to say, that didn't happen. BUT I really did have good intentions and did do a couple of blogs before we revealed the news to everyone. In saying that, the few Hidden Baby Blogs that I actually did have now been revealed! Enjoy :)

Here are some updates on what has happened over the past couple of months:

- On February 11th we found out that we are having a GIRL!!

- We decided to name our little girl Olivia Claire. Olivia is a name that we both have loved for a while. The inspiration for Claire came from my grandmother who passed away right before I was born. Her name was Clara.

-We now have a nursery in our house! It's been so much fun preparing a sweet girls room for Olivia. That will be a different post complete with pictures :)

-I completed my 2nd year of teaching on May 24th. I'm happy and sad to say that I won't be going back next year, but staying home to take care of our sweet baby. Although I'm sad to not be teaching, it was an easy decision :)

-Michael is still working for Futurity First Insurance. (Life Insurance, Annuities 401k rollovers, Medicare, etc.) If you need ANYTHING at all, give him a call! If he can't help you he'll find someone great who can :)

There's lots more, but those are some of the major things that have been going on. Since I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom, I'm going to try my best to be a better blogger. The nursery is SO close to being finished, so a blog complete with pictures will follow soon!